Tamworth council budget: $150,000 in surplus as council plans arts and culture precinct, Tamworth Country Music Festival and organic recycling facility for year ahead

While COVID-19 decimated the budgets of some regional councils, the decision to scrimp and redeploy staff locally has kept the budget in the black.

The draft annual operation plan sets out the projects slated for the next year and exactly how those will be paid for, TRC financial services manager Sherrill Young said.

"The thing that's causing us the most grief at the moment is the low return on our invested funds, like everybody the council is struggling," she said.

"At the moment we cannot get a term deposit or any other investment that will pay us anymore than half a per cent.

"It's not likely to change going forward in the next couple of years either."

The council relies heavily on state and federal government funds for major projects, as well as ratepayers and developer contributions.

The arts and culture precinct, industrial business park and an organic waste recycling facility are three of the major projects identified for the next 12 months in the plan.

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Thankfully, COVID-19 stimulus means the council can push ahead with $102 million in capital infrastructure works, compared to the usual $20 million to $30 million spend.

The council's strategy and performance executive manager Jason Collins said the big job now is to go out and secure the funds to push projects like the arts and culture precinct across the line; given The Capitol Theatre lease expires in November 2023.

"We're looking at a tough year ahead, but some of that has been balanced by the state and federal governments and the amount of funding they have provided for infrastructure," he said.

After the September 2021 local government elections, the newly elected council will ask the community what it wants them to deliver in their four-year term.

All of the decisions and projects are underpinned by the city's defining document, Blueprint 100, which sets out Tamworth's direction into the future.

Usually, the planning cycle in local government is four years, but because of COVID-19 the election was postponed.

That resulted in an extra transition year, where many of the strategies identified in 2016 were completed - so the council has drawn from Blueprint 100 to establish goals for the 2021 to 2022 financial year.

Other highlights in the plan include the 50th anniversary of Tamworth Country Music Festival, a city entrance strategy to spruce up the key entry points to Tamworth and a water management plan to look at how decisions will be made in future when it comes to drought and demand.

The community is urged to have their say on the draft annual operational plan.

It is on public exhibition until May 31.

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